Tickled to see someone invoke CENI! Really important hermeneutical principles that make sense of a lot of historic CoC positions, but that are often overlooked or flattened. No, your grandma wasn't just legalistic, she inherited a sophisticated way of reading the Bible that made sense in context, but that has largely not been passed down to the past generation or two.
In addition to theological/hermeneutical considerations (which are real and important!), I think sociological analysis a la Doug Foster (ie: the chapter on instrumental worship in The Story of Churches of Christ) is helpful in fleshing out the story. The divides w/in the Stone-Campbell movement over instrumental worship heightened post-American civil war, with lines often falling roughly along North/South lines. As the SCM evolved from a frontier revival movement into a more mainstream denomination, wealthy northern churches adopted expensive organs while southern churches suffered post-war economic disaster. From a southern perspective that was indicated a distinct lack of charity, and symbolic of general northern vice. Not having instruments was virtuous because it indicated you were spending money on "better" things (wrap this up with some "God loves those whom he chastens" theology, and you reinforce the idea that "simple," "impoverished" worship is more pleasing to God.)
All good points. I considered getting into the split with the Disciples in this post, but I was trying to keep down the overall length and complexity. It’s definitely worth thinking about the ways that the insistence on a cappella, which seems to have begun at least in part as an outgrowth of the movement’s drive toward Christian unity, has also served as one of the most divisive of the church’s distinctive beliefs.
Oh definitely! The shift from restoration for the sake of unity to restoration for the sake of boundary-marking is one of the great tragedies of our movement.
Relatedly, it's really interesting how the mantra "silent where the Bible is silent" took two distinct turns, one a "if the Bible doesn't speak on it, it's a matter of Christian liberty and we won't bind/judge" and the other basically the opposite: "if the Bible doesn't speak on it (or we can't CENI it) it's unauthorized and therefore wrong."
And if CENI is on the way out for the CoC, upon what can the insistence on a capella rest? I think there's still something in the radically democratic/participatory nature of CoC ecclesiastical structure and worship that you can point--a capella worship encourages, nay, demands congregational participation in order to work. It's a really tangible expression of the priesthood of all believers.
A through line of Church of Christ practice is an emphasis on simplicity. Our church buildings are unadorned and austere, we don’t have a complicated church calendar, and, yes, our singing is unaccompanied. Like you say, a capella music is not just a strange quirk of the CofC that one can take or leave; it’s not simply an aesthetic preference. It is borne of a theological commitment to simplicity in faith and practice. For this reason, to reject a capella music is to reject something fundamental about the Churches of Christ.
Do you think that the church’s commitment to simplicity as you’ve described it comes from the church’s reading of the New Testament, or is it a historical consequence of the attempt to unite into a single church believers from various denominations with differing traditions?
It's a combination of things. One is that the Churches of Christ developed on the American frontier, where resources to afford instruments, stained glass, or Christian art were very limited. Another is that simplicity can be a means to unity; pare down the religious artifices one is required to endorse to be a member of a certain community, and then you're able to include more people in the group. And, with those two things as motivations, there are straightforward ways of reading scripture that emphasize simplicity. "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" is something I heard often, the meaning of which was supposed to be that God desires simple faith rather than complicated religious devices. It's also easy to find simplicity in the New Testament where the authors were writing to mostly poor, mostly uneducated members of a society meeting in individuals' homes.
Tickled to see someone invoke CENI! Really important hermeneutical principles that make sense of a lot of historic CoC positions, but that are often overlooked or flattened. No, your grandma wasn't just legalistic, she inherited a sophisticated way of reading the Bible that made sense in context, but that has largely not been passed down to the past generation or two.
In addition to theological/hermeneutical considerations (which are real and important!), I think sociological analysis a la Doug Foster (ie: the chapter on instrumental worship in The Story of Churches of Christ) is helpful in fleshing out the story. The divides w/in the Stone-Campbell movement over instrumental worship heightened post-American civil war, with lines often falling roughly along North/South lines. As the SCM evolved from a frontier revival movement into a more mainstream denomination, wealthy northern churches adopted expensive organs while southern churches suffered post-war economic disaster. From a southern perspective that was indicated a distinct lack of charity, and symbolic of general northern vice. Not having instruments was virtuous because it indicated you were spending money on "better" things (wrap this up with some "God loves those whom he chastens" theology, and you reinforce the idea that "simple," "impoverished" worship is more pleasing to God.)
All good points. I considered getting into the split with the Disciples in this post, but I was trying to keep down the overall length and complexity. It’s definitely worth thinking about the ways that the insistence on a cappella, which seems to have begun at least in part as an outgrowth of the movement’s drive toward Christian unity, has also served as one of the most divisive of the church’s distinctive beliefs.
Oh definitely! The shift from restoration for the sake of unity to restoration for the sake of boundary-marking is one of the great tragedies of our movement.
Relatedly, it's really interesting how the mantra "silent where the Bible is silent" took two distinct turns, one a "if the Bible doesn't speak on it, it's a matter of Christian liberty and we won't bind/judge" and the other basically the opposite: "if the Bible doesn't speak on it (or we can't CENI it) it's unauthorized and therefore wrong."
And if CENI is on the way out for the CoC, upon what can the insistence on a capella rest? I think there's still something in the radically democratic/participatory nature of CoC ecclesiastical structure and worship that you can point--a capella worship encourages, nay, demands congregational participation in order to work. It's a really tangible expression of the priesthood of all believers.
A through line of Church of Christ practice is an emphasis on simplicity. Our church buildings are unadorned and austere, we don’t have a complicated church calendar, and, yes, our singing is unaccompanied. Like you say, a capella music is not just a strange quirk of the CofC that one can take or leave; it’s not simply an aesthetic preference. It is borne of a theological commitment to simplicity in faith and practice. For this reason, to reject a capella music is to reject something fundamental about the Churches of Christ.
Do you think that the church’s commitment to simplicity as you’ve described it comes from the church’s reading of the New Testament, or is it a historical consequence of the attempt to unite into a single church believers from various denominations with differing traditions?
It's a combination of things. One is that the Churches of Christ developed on the American frontier, where resources to afford instruments, stained glass, or Christian art were very limited. Another is that simplicity can be a means to unity; pare down the religious artifices one is required to endorse to be a member of a certain community, and then you're able to include more people in the group. And, with those two things as motivations, there are straightforward ways of reading scripture that emphasize simplicity. "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" is something I heard often, the meaning of which was supposed to be that God desires simple faith rather than complicated religious devices. It's also easy to find simplicity in the New Testament where the authors were writing to mostly poor, mostly uneducated members of a society meeting in individuals' homes.